08-17-2025 Hike

Second night's sleep was about the same. I saw the Milky Way when I got up in the night to pee. I used my clothes bag as a pillow and that worked fine. Wasn't as cold as the previous night. Got up a little before 6:00 and organized everything going into my backpack except the tent. Set up my cooking stuff in front of the tent and had oatmeal and coffee, was very good. I also heated water for Jambo and Lisa and chatted with them while the water was heating. He was interested in my tent setup. I filtered water for the day after that, then headed back and packed up the tent. Put everything into my backpack, and not too long after we were on the trail, around 8:30. This hike went much faster than the others, much more elevation drop than gain. We took a break after an hour on the trail, and shortly after we started back up Connor met us. He had run from Echo Lake. We talked a little bit on the trail about his trip to Switzerland and our upcoming trip to Europe. There was a downhill section on this hike that was a little tricky, trail was covered with loose rocks that weren't always stable. My shoulders were aching from the backpack weight, and I was regularly trying to shift the load on them. We took a short break, where I had a pee, then we powered down the rest of the way. Toward the end Ray was running out of gas, so I hung back and made sure he was okay. We got down to the marina by Echo Lake around 12:30, was definitely good to see the end.

Avg pace = 25:18/mi

Total distance = 8.63 mi

Elapsed moving time = 3:38:35

Total elevation gain = 570'

https://www.strava.com/activities/15505585661

Sat around and drank a beer to celebrate the weekend with the others. Then Connor drove me to the upper parking lot and dropped me off by the car. I drove back down, hugged everybody, picked up my backpack, and was on my way. Reversed my route back to the 395, following the Carson river gorge for a while. Got back on the 395 and chugged away back to Bishop. Stopped there for gas and a Coke to help wake me up, then I drove to Lone Pine. Stopped for food at the Pizza Factory around 5:45, it was on the pricey side but definitely better tasting than previous meals. I drove from there to the Diaz Lake Campground, where I had made a campsite reservation. When I got to the site, the campground was basically deserted, and the wind was blowing pretty fiercely. I had planned on setting up the tent, getting a little sleep, and then driving home. But I wasn't going to sleep, or maybe even be able to put my tent up, in that wind. So I turned around and started driving home, not really looking forward to it. Was fine while it was daylight and even into dusk. But when night fell, the undivided highway was tough to drive on, lights from oncoming traffic made it difficult to follow the road. So that was tense for quite a while. It got a little better when the protective barrier strips separated the two traffic directions and better still when I got onto I-15. Down the grade by the Cajon Pass, some traffic but essentially driving at highway speeds. My route took me to the 215, again there wasn't much traffic to deal with. I was getting weary, and my legs and shoulders were sore. Last stretch on I-15 seemed to take a long time. Got home a little before 11:00, just as Ann was pulling in to the driveway from the Rady Shell concert she went to with Emily. Left most of my stuff in the car to unload later, went in and took a quick shower, then to bed. This was an especially long day.